"This
is the movie
not the perfume;
its smell is not quite as captivating."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

This is the movie not the perfume; its smell is not
quite
as captivating.
A slow moving, stylish psychological thriller in
imitation of
Hitchcock's
Vertigo. It is adapted from an original story by Brian
De
Palma and Paul Schrader, and is directed by De Palma
and scripted by
Schrader. Set in New Orleans, 1959, it shows
the wealthy Michael
Courtland (Cliff Robertson) sitting on top of the
world, celebrating
his
tenth wedding anniversary with a party in his
mansion. His lovely wife
Elizabeth (Geneviève Bujold) and young
daughter Amy (Blackman),
both look up to him beaming with joy. His
real-estate development
partner
Bob La Salle (John Lithgow) proposes a toast to him
and to their
prosperous
business, while his high society friends give him
their best wishes.

Upon retiring for the night,
Michael's daughter
and wife are kidnapped in their bedroom and he is
left with a ransom
note
to deliver $500,000 tomorrow or they will be killed.
Inspector Brie
(Stanley
Reyes) comes up with a plan to put in phony money
and a transmitter in
the briefcase exchange. But the kidnappers when
aware that they had
been
tricked, burst out of the house that is surrounded
by the police,
taking
the two victims with them. In the pursuing police
chase, the
kidnapper's
car explodes and goes over the bridge and none of
the bodies were
found.
Grieving the loss of his wife and child, the
guilt-ridden Michael
builds
them a tomb on the expensive land his firm was to
develop.

Sixteen years later Michael
goes with
his partner
Bob on a vacation and he revisits Florence, Italy,
where he met his
wife.
When he goes to the church where they met, he sees a
young girl who
looks
exactly like his wife. Her name is Sandra Portinari
(Geneviève
Bujold)
and she's working there restoring decaying art
works. Michael falls
instantly
in love with her and doesn't heed Bob's warnings
that she might be a
gold
digger and decides to take her back to New Orleans
and marry her.
Sandra becomes his second chance to prove his love, as
he thinks he can
finally put the past behind him.

The surprises to come weren't really all that
surprising as
the beauty
in the storytelling is almost exclusively in the
understated acting by
the soul stricken Cliff
Robertson, the
emotionally
impactful performance by Geneviève Bujold,
and the competent
acting
of John Lithgow. It plays too much like a rehash of
the Master's work,
to break any new ground, yet it is still thrilling
in its own way.